


platonic as in (gal) pals

by Janusa



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: 4+1, Don't copy to another site, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Kara's POV, Kinda, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Mutual Pining, vague mention of an explosion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:33:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25965166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Janusa/pseuds/Janusa
Summary: Kara has never had many female friends besides Alex.Alex is terrific, and they are close, but she’s her sister, and there will always be things that you can’t say to your family.Kara is so out of practice at this best friend’s thing or even making new friends that she isn’t sure how her friendship with Lena Luthor happens. It’s at some point between small talk after interviews, and Kara finding her office flooded with flowers that the admiration she feels towards Lena morphs to something more, she convinces herself that ‘more’ is nothing but fraternal.OrKara and Lena's friendship seems to be evolving all the time but that's all it is; a friendship. Or maybe is not.OrThe fic where Kara and Lena are just friends but Alex knows better, so does Maggie, the superfriends, Kara and just everybody. They are just stalling for the drama.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 14
Kudos: 362





	platonic as in (gal) pals

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on Tumblr as @janusa for countless reblogs of supercorp and more gay media. You can even drop a prompt if you'd like, I'm just starting to write supercorp and need to train the muscles.  
> So, I hope you like this fic. Let me know what you think about it.

Kara has never had many female friends besides Alex.

She doesn’t think it was a conscious decision; it just kind of happened. 

It always seemed somehow more comfortable to hang out with guys. If she were to give it a little thought, she would realize it had to do more with the flutter in her stomach every time a girl got close to her than with her ‘boys are oblivious, so they won’t suspect I’m an alien’ logic. It’s also been a while since she had a best friend since Kenny, to be precise.

Alex is terrific, and they are close, but she’s her sister, and there will always be things that you can’t say to your family.

Kara is so out of practice at this _best friend’s_ thing or even making new friends that she isn’t sure how her friendship with Lena Luthor happens. It’s at some point between small talk after interviews, and Kara finding her office flooded with flowers that the admiration she feels towards Lena morphs to something more, she convinces herself that ‘more’ is nothing but fraternal.

She still admires Lena, profoundly; how smart and confident she is, how much she tries to do good, and that time after time, she chooses to be kind despite the pain.

Lena’s past echoes her own; they have both lost their families, Kara, due to the explosion of her home planet and Lena to a thirst for power that derailed into madness. They don’t usually talk about it, preferring to focus on the present, although there’s a certain knowing that someone gets you.

Having lunch at Lena’s office, game night, or going for ice-cream while they talk about celebrities or her last article is more their style.

“What are you laughing at?” asks, trying to peek over her shoulder.

“Lena was just telling what she got in this _BuzzFeed_ quiz I sent her.”

“Lena, uh?”

Kara doesn’t need to see Alex to know the look she’s giving her. It’s the same look every time she mentions Lena.

“Shut up.” she mutters, already typing her answer with too many laughing emojis.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t need to.”

“So now you’re a telepath.”

Rather than read Lena’s incoming message, Kara can’t help but smile while she reads it.

“Sure, ignore me for the sake of your _friend_ , who you’re going to see in less than two hours.

She rolls her eyes and rests back her head on the couch. “You ignore me all the time when you’re with Maggie.”

The regret is immediate after she sees Alex’s smug expression. 

She throws a cushion to her sister’s face with a bit more strength than necessary.

“Um… Apoll- no, Wall-E!”

“Yes!” 

Lena returns to her seat next to Kara with a smile and a high-five.

“That’s another win for us!” 

“There is no way you’re not cheating!”

“Winn, please stop being a sore loser. It doesn’t look good on you.” Lena quips in that voice that sounds almost flirtatious but that Kara has learned is a characteristic of her.

“Just loser.” she adds.

They all laugh, Winn only fakes offense.

“Yes, yes, let’s leave it there.” says Maggie after James seems about to start his speech on how Winn and he will ‘crush’ them next week. “Food is here and all these games have left me starving.”

They watch _Back To The Future_ as they eat pizza and fries. Brainy and Lena are quietly discussing the inconsistencies of the plot with Nia trying to justify them. 

“I’m not saying I don’t like it, just that there are some parts that don’t make sense.”

Lena reaches to one of the pizza boxes and lets out a disgruntled noise.

“What?” she asks, munching on a pizza crust.

“Nothing, there’s no more pepperoni.”

“Oh, take mine.” Lena looks about to refuse so she just puts the slice on her plate. “It’s fine, and I already had two slices of these.”

“Thank you.” Lena smiles at her, the dimpled one and she can’t help but return the smile.

Next to her, Winn whispers in Alex’s ear. “Did Kara just...?”

“Yes.”

“But it’s her favorite.”

“You know she can hear you, right?”

Juggling with two full-time jobs is not easy; a journalist doesn’t have a set schedule they work whenever and wherever is the story, and the same goes for Supergirl, sometimes this means she will run on nothing but tremendous quantities of sugars and fats. It’s tiring but it’s her life and even with all its ups and downs, she wouldn’t change for anything. Kara has even come to enjoy some parts of it. Kara has even come to enjoy some parts of it.

She has learned that National City is at its quietest in the early hours. The steady heartbeats of its sleeping citizens, the rhythmic beats of the night clubs, or the lights of an office on the top floor of L-Corp.

Lena is kind of a workaholic; first to arrive and last to leave, sometimes she’s on business video calls with investors on the other side of the globe or hunched over her desk, going through documents or working on her computer. Kara never lets her know that she’s there, after all, she just stays a moment, levitating in the dark mark and listening to Lena’s heartbeat. She thinks that she would be able to recognize it in a crowd if she tried, however ridiculous the idea might be.

Tonight, there’s no light in Lena’s office. It’s rare but sometimes she leaves for a semi-decent hour and like every time that happens, Kara flies to Lena’s apartment as if by muscle memory. 

And Lena’s there, leaning on the railing of the balcony with a glass of something yellow and definitely alcoholic in hand. Her breathing is irregular and coming in pauses; she’s trying not to cry.

She flies down and it’s in that moment when Lena realizes she’s there because she automatically straightens up and gives her a smile, it’s small but looks genuine.

“Goodnight, Supergirl.”

Kara fidgets with her hands.

“You know you can call me Kara even if I wear this suit, right?”

Lena shrugs. “I know but I prefer to be careful.” 

“Are you alright?” 

Kara leans on the railing, a perfect mirror to Lena’s past posture. 

“My mother came to see me today.” There's hesitation in her voice like she’s not sure if she should be mentioning Lillian, maybe she anticipates her reaction because Kara immediately tenses, her senses go high on alert at the potential threat (because nothing good or even _not borderline catastrophic_ comes from her).

“What did she want?”

“Probably help with a new plan to dominate the world or at least National City.” she drinks up the rest of her glass. “I don’t know, I didn’t let her explain which deranged to a speech on what a disappointment I turned out to be, wasted potential, and how I could be so much more if I stopped giving my back to my family.”

There’s so much Kara wants to say -and probably notify to the DEO- but right now is not the moment so she opts to just say;

“And how are you feeling?”

“Honestly? Like I’m fifteen again, eager to comply with whatever my mother asks hoping for this to be what will make her love me, even though I know that won’t happen no matter what I do.”

Lena scoffs and raises her glass to drink only to realize it’s empty. “All these and she still can get under my skin.”

She squeezes Lena’s shoulder, leveling her sight.

“Hey, it’s understandable. She may have done a great deal of things but she’s still your mother.” _a horrible one_ , Kara wants to add.

Lena closes her eyes and rests her head on her shoulder.

“Sometimes I wish I could be like them, I would never have to question myself and what I do or if it’s right or wrong. Seems like a much easier life.”

Kara looks down to Lena, her sight is lost somewhere between the buildings of National City.

“And that’s why you’re good.” she tells her firmly and a little too loudly in the quietness of the night, but there are some things that are meant to be said like this; loud and clear, not whispered as a secret. “Because you care, some people may underestimate you but you care _so much_ ; about how your science can help others or harm them. You’re right. It’s not an easy life and that’s why choosing this path doesn’t make you _just good_.”

Lena’s eyes are glassy and she’s biting her lip to control its trembling. This is the most vulnerable Kara has seen her.

Everything in Lena’s past is the perfect recipe for a villain, she has the backstory most madmen wish they had to justify their actions. Kara herself has felt the pull, tempting, and constant to give in the darkness. Why try to change a world that resists so much? Why don’t let it burn and let its people face the aftermath?

She wipes the only tear that falls from Lena’s eyes and caresses her cheek with her thumb.

“That’s why Lena Luthor is nothing short of extraordinary and I’m so lucky to have her in my life.”

Lena is her best friend, has been her friend for years but there always was a wall between them. At first, she thought she had built it herself by hiding her identity as Supergirl but then she had come clean with Lena about it. However the wall persisted, maybe not as tall as before, but it was there. Lena is even part of the superfriends now, and Kara gets to be herself in and out of the suit around her all the time.

Lena is not doing the same; every word, every movement, every inch she lets her advance into her space has been carefully measured.

Kara knows that since the beginning Lena has allowed her to be closer than others, yet since that night on the balcony her attitude towards her has changed ever so slightly that could have passed unnoticed for everyone.

Everyone but Kara.

Kara is a tactile person, she enjoys the comfort a physical connection brings with the people she loves, and Lena is included in that people. While they share a “hello” and “goodbye” hug, Lena has never seemed too comfortable with physical displays of affection or that’s what she thought at first; Lena is emotionally repressed, that’s something she knows although she has never given it too much thought behind it as a fact itself, it seems only logical that emotional repression is what stops her from seeking touch. Now she’s touch starved and foreign to the idea of asking it.

That’s why it becomes so notorious for her that the wall is starting to crack, sometimes and just little by little but the fracture is there and is in these times that Kara feels like she can almost look to the other side. The cracks are uneven; sometimes they will be teeny tiny fissures in the form of a hand squeeze that barely lingers before letting go or maybe sitting close enough for shoulders to brush.

And Kara? Well, she likes to think that she’s become very good at deciphering Lena’s non-verbal cues because so far every approach she’s made has been met halfway not without a little hesitancy at first. 

There are some touches that have become routine for them now. Kara runs her fingers through Lena’s hair when they are watching movies in the darkness of either of her apartments or holding hands when they are walking.

These are all innocent, friendly touches with zero romantic undertone, contrary to whatever Alex may suggest.

She knows Lena is into women if her boarding school stories are anything to go by, and Kara has only ever dated boys but she knows she likes them too, even if Alex and Maggie are the only people she’s spoken about it, it doesn’t make it any less true. She thinks some of her friends _know_ even if they’ve never mentioned anything and for that Kara is grateful.

She’s not ready to come out right now, or maybe it's just that she hasn’t the energy with everything that’s going on in her life.

“ _Sure, repeat to yourself that it is tiredness and not cowardice._ ” tells her a nagging voice in her head that sounds too much like her own. A freer, bolder version of herself, a Kara with rage and red kryptonite in her veins but not an ounce of fear.

She silences the voice away, another problem to deal later with. Just because she likes women it doesn’t mean she likes Lena, at least not in _that_ way. She does not, they are good friends, best friends. Scratch that, they are super best friends.

She tells Maggie that on one of the sisters’ nights she decides to tag along while they wait for Alex to get home.

Maggie purses her lips like she’s analyzing her. Always the good detective. “Don’t you think she’s pretty or she’s just not your type?”

Now Kara frowns because what’s Maggie talking about? Lena’s everybody type; she’s gorgeous in all the possible ways; her heart, her mind, her eyes, her bo-

“Hey little Danvers, are you still there? asks Maggie, waving a hand in front of her face. “Yes, sorry. I zoned out.”

“Thinking about…?”

She gives no answer, suddenly drained, as if a red sun had appeared in the middle of the room. She’s been feeling like that lately; powerless but painless and she reckons the reason is her constant musings over the depth of her feelings for Lena.

Maggie is still waiting for a response so she shrugs, she’s her sister’s fiancée but she’s also turned into a member of the Danvers’ family, and she supposes she feels the same judging by the worry in her eyes. When she speaks it’s in an almost tender voice.

“Look Kara, I don’t know what you feel nor I’ll pretend that I do, so feel free to throw what I’m about to say to the trash.” Maggie takes a pause only to look at Kara severely in the eye. “You’re the most powerful and strong being on this planet and that’s fact and I know you’re its righteous defender but if what you’re doing is ‘wait for the right moment’ I hate to break the news for you but it’ll never come. This world will always need something from you, either that is to save it from a big bad guy or be their symbol.”

“And it won’t stop taking nor will wait for you either, and some people will do the same because believe me Kara, hope can only feed the wait for so long. Please remember that you’re a person before a hero.”

Kara doesn’t know what to say, her throat is tight and she can’t swallow past the lump that’s formed. She nods and tries to smile but it probably looks more like a grimace.

“Thanks.” it’s all she manages to say, but she doesn’t need to say more.

Maggie is right about everything she said or that’s what Kara thinks, at this point she’s not sure if she’s been waiting or stalling. She’s friendly with everybody but really, she can count on one hand the people she considers part of her family (besides Alex and Eliza), Lena included.

Relationships are unstable, feeble, uncertain but family… family for Kara is permanent. And she’s not sure of being brave enough to risk that permanence with a confession. Nevertheless, when she sees Alex and Maggie; how happy her sister is, the happiest she’s ever seen her, or Brainy and Nia that somehow understand each other despite how different they are, how Brainy forgets about facts and numbers…

It almost seems worth it.

But Kara has already lost so much, so many and all that she wants is the safety of the unchangeable.

“ _Supergirl”_ Alex calls her, waking her up from her trance through the comms.

“What you got?”

 _“Four men, robbery to a bank on the seventh, alien weaponry involved, the staff are hostages and highly unstable elements have been identified. Brainy calculates over eighty percent the chances of it blowing up.”_ Alex recites in her professional voice.

“Impact radius?”

This time she hears Brainy’s voice in her ear.

“ _one point twenty-three kilometers.”_

“I’m on it.” she says, a couple of seconds away from the place.

“ _Supergirl?_ ” is Alex’s voice again. “ _Be careful, one of the elements identified is kryptonite._ ”

  
  


There is no trace of the criminals or hostages when she gets to the location, this whole thing smells too much like a trap but the blinking timer on the very visible bomb in the middle of the bank keeps counting down. She also calculates her chances of evacuating the area when the time is over and she may be not as accurate as Brainy but the numbers are not on her side. So she takes the dispositive and flies up and away from the city.

When Brainy had mentioned kryptonite as one of the components she had figured it would be as gas and that she would have enough time to leave before it went into her system and affected her. 

She’s certainly not expecting green shards embedding into her suit and skin.

The last thing Kara sees before falling are her own hands, painted green and red as she tries to grasp the air.

“How fucks all these people get kryptonite? says someone, Kara knows the voice but can’t match it with a name or face. “Is someone selling it on _eBay_ or what?”

“I’m starting to wonder the same.” says another voice as familiar as the first one but her mind is foggy and hazy and the more she tries to think the more her brain throbs so she stops trying and everything goes black.

The first thing she feels when she wakes up is the familiar warmth coming off the sunlamps and the second is a hand in her forehead. She turns her head and Alex is looking at her with fondness in her eyes and also a reprimand she’s sure will come as soon as she’s awake enough.

“Hey” she mutters hoarsely and Alex hands her a bottle of water that she accepts with a _thanks_.

“How long I’ve been out?” 

“Two days.” she says, Kara scoops over a little to let Alex get on the bed next to her. “John caught you before you hit the ground so that helped a lot, Lena’s nanobots did the rest.”

 _Is Lena here?_ It’s the first thing that her brain provides after the sudden realization that her friend is nowhere inside the reach of her senses. Alex must notice her looking for something.

“She’s not here.” and Kara already knew that but can’t help the disappointment from showing in her face.

“Jess called her, something came up at L-Corp and they needed her… she didn’t want to leave but I assured her I’d let her know if you woke up.” Alex adds after a pause like a kind of comfort. It helps, a little.

Kara doesn’t dwell on the matter too much, soon drifting in a dreamless sleep.

The next time she wakes up is to the smell of gardenia and freesia, she opens her eyes just in time to see Lena entering the medical bay. For a moment Kara is glad to be the only one with super senses in the vicinity because she’s sure her heartbeat can be heard until Metropolis.

“Hi, how are you feeling?” Lena asks, pulling up a chair close to the sunbed.

She shrugs. “Better if a little sleepy.” 

Lena looks tired too, there are dark circles under her eyes and her shoulders are slightly hunched, which is a rare look on her, she wonders what time is it and catches a glimpse from the watch on Lena’s wrist; two in the morning.

“You should be home, y’know?” Kara tries to chastise her but it comes out too soft, more of a request than anything else.

“Should I leave then?” she taunts her with an arched eyebrow and points a manicured finger towards the door.

Kara rolls her eyes.

“Shut up, Luthor.” she drags with a heavy tongue, but Lena doesn’t flinch at the mention of her last name anymore. She considers that a victory. “Get in here.”

They barely fit in the bed, and their heads almost hit the sunlamps yet Lena’s shoulder feels like the comfiest pillow in the world and Kara may have been in a very similar position with Alex just a couple of hours ago, nevertheless, this feels nothing like it. It’s like there’s a ton of stones in her stomach and that thought alone makes her realize how hungry she is. Maybe food will help her settle the flutter in her chest as well as the desire to sigh profoundly and sink in Lena’s warmth.

Kara is no fool, knows what that means and has decided to accept it, fear and all because the elation that runs through her body every time Lena smiles at her or finishes their conversations with a single read heart is worth it.

This feeling that she has decided to acknowledge and accept is worth it, even if she won’t name it, not yet.

“Did you come straight from L-Corp?”

Lena shakes her head while she strokes her forearm absentmindedly in uneven patterns. 

“Just went home for a quick shower.”

“Did you have dinner?”

She shakes her head again, too focused on the exposed skin of her arm to voice her answer.

“Good because I’m starving and don’t feel like eating alone.”

Kara asks one of the guys taking care of the med bay entrance if they can get something to eat and she thinks that probably Winn is the one to get her message because she gets all the bests from the twenty-four hour diner that’s three blocks away that they go sometimes to after long patrol nights.

She doesn’t dampen her excitement at the sight of such a banquet, up faster than her current state should allow her.

Eating in the med bay doesn’t seem too hygienic so they go to the break room, empty at this time, and set everything on the coffee table in front of a worn out couch. Lena turns on the TV and finds a channel playing _Parent’s Trap_ and leaves it there. It’s almost like any movie night at Kara’s place with greasy food and a nineties children’s movie (that are Lena’s favorites even if she will never admit it).

Their legs are tangled on the couch, this not being big enough for two grown-ups, and they are eating from each other’s styrofoam containers. Well, more like Kara’s eating from both of their styrofoam containers and Lena is taking a bite of her chicken every couple of minutes, too entertained with the movie, but it’s okay, that means more food for her and staring at Lena without being noticed.

Lena is beautiful in all her versions, in different ways, but if she were to choose a favorite, it would be this; the one that wears jeans and plushy socks with her hair loose in waves. The Lena that lets herself be soft, that when laughs look so young and carefree. 

Like she never was allowed to, like she maybe she doesn’t quite know how to be.

They stay there after having dinner, _Matilda_ is now just starting, and Kara has just eaten enough calories for the whole week; moreover, she’s not sure how they end up cuddling with Lena’s back to her chest or in what moment she starts playing with Kara’s hands. Still, it’s okay; she hasn’t been sure of a lot of things lately.

Lena turns to face her, “Would you have liked to have telekinetic powers too?” she asks during the scene Matilda is training her new abilities.

“I don’t think so, it was hard enough trying to pass as a normal adolescent in Midvale with the laser vision and everything else to on top of that sending food flying every time I got mad.”

Lena purses her lips.

“You’re right. It’d be cool though.”

“Telekinesis holders are not common but I know one.”

That seems to pique Lena’s interest more than Matilda’s mischiefs.

“Really?”

“Yes, Imra. She's part of the _Legion,_ and Mon-El’s wife.” she feels the need to add for some reason. “You didn't get to meet her.”

“Oh, I know who you're talking about, Brainy showed me some of his archives of the _Legion_.”

Kara is surprised by that, she knows how private Brainy is with everything related to the _Legion. “_ Really?”

“Mhmm. Great brain and a great face.”

Lena loses in her thoughts for a moment and Kara frowns, like, she knows it's true but hey. She voices that last part because one of Lena’s coquettish smiles spreads through her lips and tilts her head.

“I may not be a fan of Mon-El but it seems like we share the taste in women.” 

Kara swallows, suddenly feeling trapped between Lena’s front and the couch with not enough will to push herself free. Lena’s eyes are intense on her, they evaluate her, gauge her and Kara wants to ask if she's passed the test, whatever it's about. 

“Although I have to confess something.” she continues, more serious this time and lifts a strand of Kara’s hair to roll it in her index finger. 

“I prefer blondes.” Lena murmurs, biting her lower lip and there’s nothing innocent or subtle about it.

Kara’s hand acquires consciousness of its own since it drags up Lena’s arm and it comes to rest at the base of her neck where she can feel her pulse quicken as much as hear it. 

“Tha-that’s fortunate.” she half stutters.

Lena narrows her eyes and pulls teasingly the strand in her hand.

“Why do you have to be so cryptic sometimes?”

“What do you mean?”

Lena doesn’t answer; instead, she takes the hand resting on her neck and guides it up to her cheek. Kara’s skin has been (mostly) invulnerable since she got to Earth but for the times kryptonite has affected her; however, this tingling, this rising heat that starts on the pads of her fingers and sears through her body is nothing like she’s felt before, with anyone. Although if she had to describe the sensation that overtakes her as Lena drags their joined hands over her pale neck in one word it would be _scorching_.

Lena lets their hands sit on her cheek but Kara has always been secretly greedy and needs to explore more. 

It seems only logical for her that the first part of Lena’s face she decides to explore on her own is her mouth; the soft bow of the upper lip, the slightly lifted corners that seek to conceal a smile or those lips that Kara wishes were painted in their usual crimson shade just so she could smear it with her thumb. Lena’s lips part and her breath warms her fingers; Kara has to make a conscious effort to register Lena’s words.

“It always seems like you want to tell me something but you never do it, and that leaves me wondering.

“What?”

“If I’m stupid or just plain arrogant for thinking we are past platonic.”

“You’re the smartest person I know.” she answers as a reflex despite the tense situation, and Lena chuckles.

“But you _do_ agree I’m arrogant.”

She shrugs with one shoulder and places her hand on Lena’s nape.

“I think you know the effect you have on people.”

Lena arches a perfect eyebrow almost defyingly. Kara leans in as she looks straight into her eyes, this pull and tug game has gone on for far too long and is about time to end it. 

She lets their noses touch before totally giving in and Lena pulls her by the hem of her shirt as soon as their lips touch. Lena kisses like Kara so many times had imagined, passionately and with purpose, and it seems to be ruin her forever with a single kiss. They stop when voices come near the break room but they don’t untangle. Kara lets out a happy sigh and rests their foreheads together.

“I think you are right, we are past platonic and I’m not going back.” she says before diving in for another kiss.


End file.
